Railtrack's successor company Network Rail still has a very long way to go to improve performance on the railways, the Rail Passengers Council said today.

Railtrack's successor company Network Rail still has a very long way to go to improve performance on the railways, the Rail Passengers Council said today.

It was unacceptable that passengers will have to wait until 2006 for performance to return to the levels reached before the October, 2000, Hatfield crash, added the RPC chairman, Stewart Francis.

"The greatest challenge for Network Rail is to bring under control the spiralling costs of work on the railway," he said.

"This is crucial if we are to see a growing railway rather than a diminishing one", he said.

His comments came in a foreword to the RPC's annual report, which also showed the number of complaints fell by 23 per cent to 11,192. However, the North East bucked the trend with a rise from 1,251 to 1,486, the only region apart from London to show an increase.

Mr Francis said the accountability challenge facing Network Rail was immense: "It is clear that in the transition from a private shareholder-owned company to the new structure, a new ethos and new ethics are called for to help to build passenger faith in the network owner."

He said the May, 2002 Potters Bar accident, in which seven people died, had cast a shadow over the early part of the 2002-03 year and that the causes of the derailment remained worryingly unanswered. He said that passengers' journey experiences in the last year had been extremely varied. Passenger groups in Scotland and in England's eastern, north western, western and London areas had all thought that services had improved during the year.

Yet groups in Wales, the Midlands and southern England all said services had got worse.

He praised the performance of some train companies who were now running more than 90 per cent of trains on time.

"But hurried changes to timetables and cuts in services had left a sour taste with many", he said. "Last year I said that I remain optimistic - despite some setbacks, I still am.

"Major change on the railways takes a long time but the rail industry, with firm strategic direction from the Strategic Rail Authority and a real effort to develop a passenger-centred railway based on strong regional consultation, can now focus on delivering what passengers want: a safe, reliable and affordable railway."

Launching the report in London yesterday, Mr Francis said he was confident that the problem of spiralling costs was being tackled but added: "Whether any reduction is actually being made is questionable."